Why Is Marriage Important To Society?

Marriage has been a permanent fixture in Western society for millennia. While the institution of marriage has changed throughout the years, still it is a constant presence in our world. Marriage has been important to society for a variety of reasons.

Many people believe that the so-called “nuclear family,” consisting of a father, a mother, and children, are the basic building blocks of society. It is in the family that children learn to become citizens; it is in the family that children learn about relationships; it is in the family that children learn about what is expected of them in society, how to act and how to be. Central to the nuclear family is the traditional idea of marriage, consisting of one man and one woman in a monogamous and permanent relationship.

No one in the modern age would suggest that a single-parent family is not a family. With a large number of people growing up in single-parent households, it would not be right, fair, or proper to suggest that a one-parent family cannot function and achieve the same things that a two-parent family can. However, studies do suggest that children who are raised with both a mother and a father do have certain circumstantial advantages over children raised in one-parent households.

In earlier times, marriage helped to stabilize the economics of a rural agricultural society. By having one man and one woman together with their children, a regular workforce for the farm was grown at home. In industrial society, this emphasis changed from children who contribute to the family economy to a view in which the family serves as the training ground and shelter for children, preparing them for life in the adult world.

In the modern world, marriage is no longer a situation of bondage or slavery for women, as it was in medieval times. Both men and women benefit financially as well as emotionally and spiritually from the arrangement of marriage. Some studies even suggest a link between better health and marriage. In addition, marriage is an important institution to many religions who, even though marriage is licensed by the state, nevertheless sanction marriages and perform marriage ceremonies.